This invention relates generally to manufacturing techniques and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for supporting turbine components for manufacture.
Accurate manufacturing of a turbine component may be a significant factor in determining a manufacturing time of the component. Specifically, when the component is a gas turbine engine blade, accurate manufacturing of the blade may be one of the most significant factors affecting an overall cost of fabrication of the gas turbine engine, as well as subsequent modifications, repairs, and inspections of the blade. For example, at least some known gas turbine engine blades include a dovetail that typically requires an accurate milling process to create the dovetail profile and under platform surfaces. To maintain an accurate relationship between the pressure faces of the dovetail, the fixture generally must be held as rigidly as possible to facilitate preventing movement of the dovetail during machining passes. Generally, any movement of the during the machining process may result in poor dimensional stability, degraded surface finish and/or reduced tool life
At least some known manufacturing processes encapsulate a cast gas turbine engine blade in an alloy that has low melting temperature, such as a tin-bismuth matrix. The encapsulate facilitates providing support to the blade during the machining process. However, such a material may not always enable accurate results to be produced, that are reliable or easily repeatable. More specifically, support facilitates preventing the blade from moving or deflecting due to the machining forces. In addition, using a matrix may require multiple fixtures, machines, and/or processes, thus increasing overall manufacturing time of the blade. Moreover, because the encapsulating material has to be cast around the airfoil, and then later removed, several non-value added steps are added to the manufacturing process.